Food commercials have an effect on children's food choices and even their brain activity, a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics has revealed. Researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center and University of Missouri-Kansas City conducted the study involving 23 children aged 8 to 14.
The children involved in the study were asked to rate 60 food items based on their belief on how healthy or tasty each food item was. The researchers then examined the children's brain activity as they watched food and non-food commercials through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, focusing on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the most active part of the brain in reward valuation.
Food commercials change children's eating priorities https://t.co/HZlKzHYKi4 #childhealth #marketing
— Deven Nongbri (@dnongbri) August 16, 2016
As their brains were scanned, Science Daily reported that the children were asked if they wanted to eat the food items that they were shown after the commercials. The researchers found that tastiness prompted the children in their food choices, even more so after watching food commercials. Their ventromedial prefrontal cortices were also found to be more active after watching food commercials.
"Food commercials may prompt children to consider their liking and wanting of specific food items, irrespective of the lack of any health benefits," the authors of the study said, as per a report in Medical News Today. They added that this can make it harder to urge children to eat healthy food. The same report said that the effect of food commercials on brain activity might be greater during hunger.
The report added that there is concern about the potential harm of food commercials to children's health. In another report, The Te Cake said that this same study showed that commercials of junk food such as pizza and burgers have a big impact on children's food choices. The junk food commercials reportedly prompted a craving in the children and also affected their brain activity.
